Freedom doesn't come cheap

The odd arrangements of a small northern state may not last much longer

BREMERHAVEN, they say, is the freest town in Germany. It is not the sort of freedom many may think of (vice is more visible on Hamburg's Reeperbahn). It is a financial and administrative thing, which makes this port at the mouth of the Weser River one of the odder spots in the republic. Normally, Bremerhaven (population 113,000) can be ignored, as can Bremen, a larger town 54km away. The pair form the state of Bremen, the tiniest of Germany's 16 Länder. Yet its election on May 22nd will stir a flicker of national interest. Germans will ponder, briefly, what Bremen's weirdness says about the rest of the country.

The election results are unlikely to be startling. The Social Democratic Party is almost certain to maintain its 66-year hold on power and its coalition with the Green party. A bigger question is whether the Greens will push the Christian Democratic Union into third place, which would be a blow to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor and the party's national leader. The Free Democratic Party (FDP), her struggling coalition partner, could be pushed out of Bremen's legislature, the Bürgerschaft.

Bremen's odd planet-moon configuration is a 19th-century legacy. In 1827, faced with a Weser that was silting up, Hanseatic Bremen bought the land for Bremerhaven from Hanover's king to maintain a link to the sea. After the second world war the Americans kept the cities as supply bases.

Relations between the two towns have barely grown cosier since Bremen's merchants decided that the menial residents of the place they had purchased smelt like fish. Bremerhaven has suffered blow after blow: fishing disappeared in the 1960s, then the rise of shipping containers pushed workers out of the docks. Shipbuilding expired in the 1980s; the American army pulled out in the 1990s. The town's jobless rate is 16.8%, one of the highest in west Germany. A section of its port is legally part of Bremen, which rankles. Many Bremerhaveners think that Bremen treats the city like a colony, says Ulf Eversberg, the Greens' leader in the city council, which is also up for election.

But, as often happens below stairs, the underlings run the show. Uniquely in Germany, Bremerhaven has its own constitution, runs its own police and manages its own schools. Elsewhere these are matters for the Land. The city sends its own slate of politicians to the Bürgerschaft, where they form a powerful lobby. This means fringe parties can win seats in the legislature without competing statewide for votes. (It may also save the FDP.) Most of all, Bremerhaven cannot be sanctioned by the state for its spending plans.

It has used this freedom to spectacular effect. The old port is lined with eye-catching attractions, including what looks like a space-faring inflatable raft (the “Climate House”) and a museum dealing with European emigrants to America, many of whom set forth from Bremerhaven. The city has high hopes for offshore wind energy, especially after the German government's sudden decision to pull out of nuclear energy as soon as possible. It treated itself to a €16m ($23m) arena for the Fischtown Pinguins, a second-tier ice-hockey team, and has built up a towering debt. “If Bremerhaven was one of many cities, it would never have got the same help,” says Detlef Kolze, a local journalist.

The reins are soon to shorten, however. Bremen, like all Länder, must eliminate its structural deficit by 2020 under the German constitution. Bremerhaven must help, in exchange for a share of €300m a year of “consolidation aid”. Bremen's fiscal freedom “will clearly shrink, and that goes for Bremerhaven as well,” says Hermann Kuhn, the Greens' budget spokesman in the Bürgerschaft.

Bremen cannot afford failure. Rich Länder already grumble about their transfers to needy states, including €444m to Bremen last year. Why should they subsidise Bremen's “cost of littleness”, which they reckon (unfairly, says Mr Kuhn) is €100m a year? If Bremen misses the zero-deficit target, outsiders will question its independence. Bremen will have to curb Bremerhaven's freedoms to preserve its own.